FUNDACIO THE BARCELONA INSTITUTE OFSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Their core work

The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) is a foundation that acts as the joint umbrella for several of Spain's top fundamental-research centers clustered in Catalonia. Rather than running its own labs, BIST designs and operates international training programmes that bring predoctoral and postdoctoral researchers into its member institutes to work on frontier science across photonics, nanotechnology, chemistry, biomedicine, and physics. Its role is that of a coordinating body — designing fellowships, selecting talent internationally, and organising mobility between centers that individually specialise in very different fields. For partners, BIST is the single door through which you reach an entire ecosystem of Barcelona-based research excellence.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

BIST's two H2020 engagements show a deliberate build-out of a complete researcher pipeline: PROBIST launched in 2017 to attract postdocs, and PREBIST followed in 2018 to bring in predoctoral candidates under the same umbrella. The scientific language also broadened — the earlier programme emphasised biosciences and photonics, while the later one added biomedicine, nanoscience, and astrophysics, reflecting the wider spread of member-institute disciplines. There is no pivot here, just a widening of both the career stages covered and the scientific fields exposed to incoming fellows.

Having secured both postdoctoral and predoctoral COFUND programmes, BIST is positioned as a long-term training coordinator — future partnerships are likely to build on this role rather than move into research-performing consortia.

How they like to work

BIST led both of its H2020 projects and worked with a small, tightly defined set of five partners, all within Spain — essentially its own member research centers acting as host institutions for the fellows. This is a hub pattern rather than a wide-network one: BIST sits at the middle and its partner centers orbit around it. Working with BIST means engaging a structured programme office, not a research lab, so expect strong administrative delivery and clear rules of engagement.

A small, country-concentrated network of five consortium partners, all based in Spain and drawn from BIST's own cluster of Barcelona research centers. Geographic reach is regional even though the fellowships themselves recruit globally.

What sets them apart

BIST is unusual because it is not a research performer in its own right — it is a legal umbrella and training coordinator for some of Europe's most highly-ranked specialist institutes, all concentrated in Barcelona. Partnering with BIST gives a single administrative entry point to talent and expertise that would otherwise require separate deals with each center. For consortium builders needing trained early-career researchers or fellowship co-funding structures, BIST offers a ready-made machinery few other organisations can match.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PROBIST
  BIST's flagship project and largest H2020 grant (EUR 6.48M) — an international postdoctoral COFUND fellowship scheme spanning all member centers.
• PREBIST
  The predoctoral counterpart to PROBIST, completing a full postgraduate-to-postdoc training ladder under a single coordinating body.